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Easier Parking in Retail Core will Drive More People to Downtown

How many of you love the idea of affordable, off-street parking in Downtown that is easy to find? Well, you’re not alone. Access to and affordability of parking has been identified as the largest barrier of more people coming Downtown. We’re hoping to change that.

The Downtown Seattle Association (DSA) and Metropolitan Improvement District (MID) have been working with WSDOT to expand the existing Downtown Seattle Parking campaign in Pioneer Square and Waterfront neighborhoods into other parts of Downtown, focusing on the Retail Core. This expansion includes the highly successful mobile website, which makes it easy to find affordable, off-street parking in bustling urban areas.

The campaign for off-street parking in Pioneer Square and near the Waterfront, created by WSDOT, in response to the loss of hundreds of on-street parking stalls due to construction of the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel, demonstrated results. Now the program is expanding, in hopes that affordable off-street parking near the Retail Core will make visiting Downtown even easier.

“DSA and MID have identified parking as a priority for positioning Downtown as the region’s top retail/dining/entertainment destination,” said Nick Hawley, parking campaign manager for the DSA/MID. “The strategy behind this effort is to create a common supply, common brand and common expectation around Downtown parking.”

DSA/MID has enlisted a core group of garage owners and operators in the Retail Core, who have agreed to sign on as charter participants in the expansion of the Downtown parking campaign. These partnered garages will offer low-cost, off-street parking in their garages with a low evening/weekend flat rate, later this summer.